Six clichéd business terms that should be banned from the office

Every office worker knows at least one bit of clichéd business-speak that they would be happy to never hear again. These include "think outside the box" or "paradigm shift" which, one assumes, are terms meant to make the speaker appear visionary or inspirational.

Members of the business community were asked if there were any other sayings they hear around the boardroom (or the water cooler or the neighboring desk) that they found particularly egregious. They were only too happy to chime in, and CNBC.com e-mail inboxes overflowed with responses.

Read ahead and find out what they had to say, and what you should never say around them.

1.
Ping

In office parlance, to "ping" means to e-mail, text or otherwise get in touch with someone. According to Jeff Logan, director of marketing at Dexas International in Coppell, Texas, an offer to "ping you back" is actually a passive-aggressive way to get rid of you.

"I'm pretty certain if someone offers to ping you back, they are not looking for a voice-to-voice conversation, but a text or an e-mail that is more easily avoidable," he said.

Other unpopular terms for "contact" include "reaching out" and "putting out feelers."

All workers have terms that especially bother them. Heddi Cundle, founder and CEO of the San Francisco-based travel gift card company MyTab, has such a term that she loathes —"go big or go home." She hates it so much, in fact, that her employees are forbidden to use it, and she keeps a snappy retort on hand for anyone unfortunate enough to utter it within earshot.

"I tell them to cough up funding so we can go big," she said. "If they balk at this, I usually tell them to go home."